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M'sian novel 'The Girl and The Ghost' endorsed on Oprah Book Club
The Oprah Book Club, once a segment on the globally acclaimed talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, is now a reading list which recommends books to readers, and has been credited for turning little-known titles into international bestsellers.
Hanna’s novel follows the journey of Suraya, a young girl living in a Malaysian village, as she inherits...
Malaysian author Hanna Alkaf’s young adult novel “The Girl and The Ghost” was included in a recommendation list for middle school readers, published by the Oprah Book Club.
The Oprah Book Club, once a segment on the globally acclaimed talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, is now a reading list which recommends books to readers, and has been credited for turning little-known titles into international bestsellers.
Hanna’s novel follows the journey of Suraya, a young girl living in a Malaysian village, as she inherits her late grandmother’s special friend - a dark spirit disguised as a grasshopper, or what the Malay community refers to as a pelesit.
It was featured in a list of young adult fiction, recommended by the novelist Loretta Lopez, published by the Oprah Daily website last week, and featured in an Instagram post by the Oprah Book Club today.
“Middle school is a notoriously awkward and challenging time in a girl’s life. Some may find solace and inspiration in stories about girls going through difficult situations and coming out the other end even stronger and wiser,” the post read.
In her article, Lopez said “The Girl and The Ghost” is a novel for “girls who enjoy magical characters and yet still want to engage with topics such as self-discovery and challenging relationships”.
The author of the acclaimed young adult novel “City Girls”, the award-winning Lopez is also a psychotherapist specialising in childhood traumas.
“The Girl and The Ghost”, published by HarpersCollins in 2020, is one of eight books authored by Kuala Lumpur-based Hanna.
Her novels have repeatedly made it into recommended reading lists for young adults by respected organisations like the Kirkus Reviews and The Young Adult Library Services Association (Yalsa).
In 2020, the novel was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, an American literary award conferred by the book review magazine Kirkus Reviews.
Telling unapologetically Malaysian stories
In an interview with Kirkus Reviews, she said when she started writing books for children and teenagers, she aimed to write “unapologetically Malaysian stories”.
“It feels amazing when you write something and you know that is authentically who you are and how you grew up, and people are able to receive it,” she told Kirkus Reviews.
She said there was fear that it would not be well-received or understood by American readers, where her publisher primarily markets her books.
“In my head, my audience is Malaysian children because I grew up reading in English and never seeing a name like mine or characters that look like me in the books that I grew up reading.
“So my audience has primarily been Malaysian children. But a personal audience and a commercial, or business audience are very different things.
“There is always a bit of a fear that it is not it will not land well with that audience, the audience that will allow me to continue writing books,” she said.
She added that the fact that she is one of the few Malaysian authors for young adults publishing at this stage places a “weight of representation”, and it is something she has had to manage since she started writing books for an American audience.
She said the positive parts have been the ability to share Malaysia with audiences who may not even have heard of the country, but there is “fear” and “pressure” in trying to represent an entire country.
“It feels great but I don’t want to sugarcoat it because it’s not only great. There is a lot that comes with it that makes it complicated to discuss,” she said.
Hanna is also known for her novel “The Weight of Our Sky”, which is set during the 1969 communal riots in Kuala Lumpur.
In 2019, “The Weight of Our Sky” won the Freeman Book Award honouring East and Southeast Asian titles for children and young adults.
In 2020, it was included in Yalsa’s list of Best Fiction for Young Adults, curated by librarians across the US.
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